If you've ever traveled to a developing country to provide aid or relief, you know that life in the local community you are serving can be complicated by all sorts of factors – drought, violence, pestilence, government bureacracy.

Your goal may be to provide food, clean water, mosquito nets, or – in our case – loan capital, business training, literacy and spiritual development opportunities, but making a measurable and sustainable difference requires more than just good intentions.

You need to have, among other things, relationships in each community – as well as sensitivity to all of the forces that have put that child with a Mickey Mouse T-shirt, or that mom with a missing limb, in your path.

This is one of the reasons Five Talents partners with local organizations and dioceses in the 11 countries that host our programs. From our offices in the US and UK we can only know so much, no matter how "flat" the world has become.

"You see so many different organizations making decisions about what people need and what is the appropriate way that people and communities need to develop, and then they bring those ideas and try to implement them," said Robin Denney, an agricultural consultant who we interviewed recently about farming in South Sudan.

"They can have a certain amount of success, but there is also some arrogance in that approach. Whereas the Church and women's groups, like the Mothers' Union [a Five Talents partner], are already on the ground doing things because they are the local people. They have that vision and commitment for their community's development because they are the community leaders and the community organizers."

To give a concrete example of what this indigenous expertise looks like, consider the following list of "dividers and connectors" related to our work in South Sudan, as explained in a recent report by another of our partners on the ground, World Concern:

"Dividers" are factors that can hinder peace and stability; in Sudan and South Sudan they are:
1. Desire to keep a segment of the population out of political participation, especially in the bordering states of Sudan and South Sudan;
2. Deprivation of equal economic and social opportunities;
3. Unequal access to natural resources, such as oil, employment and education;
4. Culture of violence and discrimination;
5. Uncontrolled security sector with too many small arms/weapons in people's hands;
6. War economy where certain people make a livelihood out of war and, as such, they do everything to ensure that peace is never achieved.

"Connectors" are factors that can bring people together for a common purpose; in Sudan and South Sudan they are:
1. Informal and formal trade networks – Sudan manufacturers and traders depend on the South for the sale of their surplus goods;
2. Sharing of oil revenue from the contested areas, such as Abyei;
3. Equal access to education and the elimination of illiteracy;
4. Improvement of the agricultural potential in South Sudan – the country could provide food to people living in the North, as the land is desert-like and not nearly as fertile;
5. Common cultural heritage – the people living in the two countries have intermarried and have many things in common;
6. The church – this is especially so with the people living in South Sudan. The church remains one of the key connectors;
7. Water systems – most of the water in the north originates from the South and as such the water management in South Sudan will have direct implications to the life of the people living in Sudan.

Five Talents coordinates its services around and alongside its partners on the ground in each community, which is why the offerings can differ from country to country, and from community to community.

To find out more about our partners, please click here.

To read an example of a "connector" in action, click here.